Creating a promotion group

This feature is available to retailers only.

Beta refers to pre-release features or products that are under active development and available for users to try out.

This page walks you through setting up a Retailer Promotion group in Ads Manager. Creating a promotion group takes about 5 minutes.

info

Before you start, make sure you know the promotion type you want to create (dollar off or percent off), your minimum amount, your savings amount, your total budget, and which customers you want to target. You cannot change some of these settings after the promotion is launched. See Billing and budgets for promotion groups to understand how charges are calculated.

Create a promotion group

1. From the Ads Manager dashboard, click Library in the left navigation, then select Promotions.

   If you don't see Library in the navigation, your account may not have Retailer Promotions enabled. Contact your Instacart representative.

2. Click Create promotion group in the top-right corner of the Promotion groups page.

3. Name your promotion.

   Enter a name for internal tracking. This name is not shown to customers. Choose something descriptive, such as "Spring 2026 — $10 off $50".

Step 4 — Choose your promotion type

Select one of the following:

• $ off basket — Customer receives a fixed dollar discount when they meet the minimum amount.
• % off basket — Customer receives a percentage discount when they meet the minimum amount.

warning

You cannot change the promotion type after launching. If you need to change the type, you'll need to create a new promotion.

Step 5 — Set your discount details

Fill in the discount parameters based on your promotion type:

Field	$ off basket	% off basket
Minimum amount	Enter the dollar amount a customer must spend to qualify (e.g., $50.00).	Enter the dollar amount a customer must spend to qualify (e.g., $30.00).
Savings amount	Enter the dollar amount to discount (e.g., $10.00).	Enter the percentage to discount (e.g., 15%).
Maximum discount amount	N/A — the savings amount is a fixed dollar value.	Optional. Set a dollar cap on the maximum discount per redemption (e.g., 15% off, up to $20).
How it shows to customers	"Spend $50, get $10 off"	"Spend $30, get 15% off"

6. Set your promotion schedule.

• Start date (required) — The date your promotion goes live. If today, your promotion will go live within two hours. If a future date, it goes live at 12am PT on the chosen date. Promotions cannot be backdated.
• End date (required) — The date your promotion automatically stops serving, or sooner if the total budget is exhausted before this date.

Step 7 — Choose your targeting

Use behavior shortcuts to define the audience for your promotion. Shortcuts are listed in order of customer intent — New to Instacart is low, Loyal buyers is high.

• New to Instacart. Customers with fewer than 5 purchases.
• New to category. Customers who have not bought from selected categories in the specified time period.
• Buys category, not from me. Customers who have bought from selected categories but not from your retailer.
• Interacts with category but doesn't buy. Customers who have interacted with selected categories but have not bought from your retailer.
• Lapsed buyers. Customers who have bought from your retailer in the past but have not bought recently.
• New to retailer. Customers who have never placed an order from your retailer.
• Loyal buyers. Customers who regularly buy from your retailer.

tip

You can update your targeting after the promotion is launched. See Managing promotion groups for details.

Step 8 — Set your total budget

The total budget is the maximum total amount you want to spend on this promotion. Instacart automatically stops serving the promotion when this amount is reached.

• Total budget is the maximum total savings amount Instacart will extend to customers on your behalf for this promotion.
• Set a budget that accounts for your expected redemption volume and savings amount.

tip

To estimate your budget, multiply your expected number of redemptions by the savings amount. For example, if you expect 500 redemptions of a $10 savings amount, budget at least $5,000. Build in a 10–15% buffer to account for higher-than-expected redemption volumes.

9. Review and launch.

Review all settings on the summary page. Click Launch promotion to make your promotion live. If today is your start date, the promotion goes live within two hours. If a future start date, it goes live at 12am PT on that date.

note

After launching, you can edit the end date, targeting, and increase the total budget — but savings amount, promotion type, minimum amount, maximum discount amount, and start date are locked. See Managing promotion groups for more detail on what you can change.